Pastor says teen killed in hunting accident was quiet, loved baseball

Funeral services are this afternoon for a Mill Creek High School freshman killed in a hunting accident over the holiday weekend.

Zach Gibson, 14, of Buford was shot around 6 p.m. Friday while squirrel hunting with two other teenagers near Pine Mountain, Department of Natural Resources spokesman Rick Lavender said.

One of Gibson’s hunting partners, also 14, accidentally shot him in the chest with a .22-caliber rifle.

Gibson was flown to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston and was pronounced dead early Saturday, Lavender said. He would have turned 15 on Dec. 8.

The teenager who fired the fatal shot had graduated from a hunter education course, Lavender said, which means he was permitted to hunt unsupervised.

Gibson’s was the fourth hunting-related fatality in the state since June, Lavender said.

Jim Ferguson, Gibson’s pastor at Ivy Creek Baptist Church, called the teen a "very quiet, very considerate young man," a typical 14-year-old boy who enjoyed playing baseball and was active in church.

Gibson played baseball at Bogan Park, according to Flanigan Funeral Home and Crematory in Buford.

Mill Creek High counselors visited Gibson’s classes Monday to talk with students about his death, Gwinnett County Public Schools spokesman Jorge Quintana said. A moment of silence was taken at 7:23 a.m. Tuesday, when Principal Jim Markham announced visitation and funeral arrangements.

Funeral services are scheduled for 2 p.m. today at Ivy Creek Baptist Church in Buford.